A Russian diplomat in Australia called the remark of Australian PM Tony Abbott about his intention to “shirtfront” Vladimir Putin “immature.” He reminded the Aussie politician that he might be “very fit” but Putin is “a professional judo wrestler.”

Abbot’s scandalous
remark came on Monday after he told journalists that he is going
to “shirtfront” the Russian president on the sidelines of G20
summit over the tragedy of the Malaysian airliner crash in the
Donetsk Region of Ukraine in July.

“I am going to shirtfront Mr Putin – you bet I am – I am
going to be saying to Mr Putin Australians were murdered, they
were murdered by Russian backed rebels,” Abbott said.

Shirtfront is a football technique for a front-on chest bump or
rough handling aimed at knocking your rival backward to the
ground. It’s “a reportable offence and considered
illegal,”says the Australian Football Rules website.

"Hopefully there's no fight. Well, definitely we admire the
Australian prime minister. He's very fit, but the Russian
president… he's a professional judo wrestler," Odoevsky told
Ten Network television.

Abbot toned down his language a day later as he failed to answer
journalists’ questions about shirtfronting Putin and whether he
regretted his staement. He said he is "absolutely determined
to have a very robust conversation with the Russian
president."

"We've all seen the impact of Russian policy on the innocent
people on board Flight MH17. I think the very least I can do,
speaking for Australia's dead and speaking for the families of
Australia's dead and indeed speaking for the world's victims is
to have a very robust conversation with President Putin," he
added.

But Odoevsky said that the Russian President is only planning to
attend multilateral meetings, not separate ones.

"There has not been a request for bilateral meetings between
Russian and Australian leaders, so we are not exactly sure where
and when Prime Minister Abbott would like to shirtfront President
Putin," he said.

Abbot still hopes to meet the Russian president during the G20
summit.

"But I certainly expect thatwhile he's a guest of
Australia, he will undertake to have a conversation with the
Australian prime minister," Abbott said.

Jacqui Lambie, a senator from Australia’s Palmer United Party,
said that Abbott and Leader of the Opposition Bill Shorten should
“stop acting like hormone-affected school boys trying to out
macho each other on the footie field — and start acting like
mature leaders of a great country.”

Earlier, Shorten had said that Putin should "show enough
conscience" not to come to Australia.

Comic Jazz Twemlow criticized the remarks of the Australian PM,
saying that “someone should tell Tony Abbott that gaffes
aren’t like baby turtles.”

“What was the reckless, childish taunt? To the sound of
foreheads being slapped everywhere, on Monday the prime minister
threatened to “shirtfront” Vladimir Putin, leading to the
inevitable mass purge of jokes that turned your timelines into a
scrolling tapestry of male chests," he wrote in the Guardian article.

He said of Tony Abbot that “perhaps he’s trying to impress
the public.” “In which case, if this is the image of the
Australian public Abbott has, shame on us. How much more machismo
does he think we can mentally ingest?” he asked.

The G-20 summit in scheduled to be held in Brisbane, Australia on
15 and 16 November 2014.

Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was shot down on its way from
Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur over eastern Ukraine on July 17, with
298 passengers on board.

A preliminary report into the disaster delivered by Dutch
investigators on September 9 said that the MH17 crash was a
result of structural damage caused by a large number of
high-energy objects striking the Boeing from the outside.

Earlier a number of Western countries blamed Russia for the
tragedy. Moscow, however, denies such allegations, saying there
is a lack of new evidence presented in the report.